


Toasting

by Chrisoel



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-06
Updated: 2019-04-06
Packaged: 2020-01-05 17:02:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 920
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18370316
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chrisoel/pseuds/Chrisoel
Summary: Effie was rescued to Thirteen in the same mission as Peet and the others.





	Toasting

**Author's Note:**

> Tiny one-shot I wrote about five years ago I just found on computer again.

"Sweetheart, you're alright?“

He knew it was a stupid question. She wasn't alright. Wouldn't be lying in a hospital bed if she was. Hadn't been alright because he had failed, failed again to protect the people he loves, hadn't managed to take her with him directly after the last games.

But she had seemd a bit better the last few days, more present and alert, which is why it now worried him so much that she had spent the last fifteen minutes with nothing else than alternating staring at him, the radiator on the wall next to her bed and the last bite of bread left from her supper in her hands without a single indication to what was going throuhg her mind.

"They don't allow open fire down here, do they?“ she asked out of the blue.

"No." He didn't know specifically but given how many other things _were_ forbidden it was a save bet that open fire was among them.

"So this is the closest we will get to a fire without being granted access to the kitchen, isn't it?“

"Eh.. I suppose.“

He was confused. What was she talking about? The doctors had said they had _reduced_ her pain medication, so she couldn't be confused by that, could she?

She continued to stare at him before suddenly offering him the bread, the hospital gown riding up her arm to reveal her much too skinny wrists.

"So.... you and me?“

He and her _what_? Now he was taking turns on blankly staring at her, the radiator and the bread.

"Only if you want of course.“ she added hastily.

Which didn't help to enlighten him. He forced himself to think properly. The withdrawl didn't make concentrating easy, but he had to try. There was something she apparently wanted them to do together, the radiator, even if she would prefer it to be an open fire and a piece of bread. A piece of sloppy bread that would be a little bit less offensive if it would be toas... Toasting. She was proposing a Toasting.

"How do you know about Toasting?“

"P...Peeta. He told about it on Caesar's show, remember?“

"Right“

His thoughts wandered to the boy, only a couple of rooms away, tortured so cruelly he now believed the girl he loved so much to be a mortal foe. And said girl, coerced into a role she believed herself not being fit for in most moments. And in all this misery there was Effie, tortured and weak, who remembered a custom foreign to her she had heard of only once, or had he told her about it before? No, they had always carefully avoided the topic of relationships in general, for sure marriage rituals.

"I'm sorry, it was silly of...“

She started nervously, he had been lost in his thoughts too long. He hurried to interrupt her.

"Yes! I mean, no, it wasn't silly, but yes! Of course I'd like to have a Toasting with you, Effie.“

By now it was clear she and her wellbeing could be used against him, no point in hiding it anymore.

"Oh. Good.“

He smiled at her.

"I'm just a little bit taken by surprise, not really used to women proposing Toasting to me.“

"I should hope so.“

"Even if, wouldn't have gotten anywhere.“

There was a tiny smile on her lips.

"Good, so now?“

"Now we're going to hold the bread in front of this lovely grey radiator. And when we're both a hundred and twenty it's gonna be toasted.“ he quipped but felt himself grow more solemn when carefully sitting on her bed to be nearer to the radiator and reaching out to take hold of one end of the bread.

They had sat there (looking like complete idiots to outsiders he supposed) for only a few moments when the curtain was pushed aside and an astonished Prim was standing there, taking in the scene in front of her. He was impressed that she managed not only not to laugh at the picture of two adults holding a tiny piece of bread in front of a radiator together but also to figure out in a second what was going on.

"Oh, a Toasting! How very lovely! Do you mind me staying?“

"Of course not, love. You share the bread with guest anyway, don't you?“ Effie asked, looking at him for confirmation. He nodded, breaking the bread in three pieces (each consisting of about four crumbs) handing it out to Effie and Prim.

"I'll sing!“ the latter said enthusiastically.

"This first bite of bread, in front of first fire lit,

this first bite shall be, shall be, shall be

the first of many, of many to be shared.

And never, never you shall find yourself lacking

Warmth or bread or friends.“

Her singing voice wasn't as good as Katniss' but it nevertheless sent shivers down his spine hearing these words, words he remembered so good, despite the fact that the last Toasting he had attended had taken place before his own Reaping, words he had never dared to expect being sung for him and Effie.

And when the three of them silently nibbled their bread, he and his wife (wife! He, Haymitch Abernathy had a _wife_!) gazing in each others eyes he felt returning - against his better judegment, because this whole mess they were in was far from over - what had left him when he had discovered Effie and Johanna and Annie and Peeta freed but so damaged from torture: hope.


End file.
